2016 January - Pro Football Rumors

Latest On Possible Relocation For Chargers, Rams

January 12th, 2016 at 9:21pm CST by Zachary Links

After much back-and-forth in Houston, NFL owners have voted to approve a plan that will put the Rams back in Los Angeles. However, it’s not immediately clear what this news means for the other two teams that were vying for L.A. relocation. The Chargers will have the option to join the Rams at their Inglewood site until through January 16th, 2017. If they do not sign up to share a stadium with the Rams by then, the Raiders will have first crack at stepping in as the second team in Inglewood. Rams owner Stan Kroenke is celebrating tonight, but this news isn’t necessarily good news for the Chargers or Raiders. The Bolts, in particular, don’t seem to have much leverage now to work with the Rams if they do decide to relocate.

“My goal from the start of this process was to create the options necessary to safeguard the future of the Chargers franchise while respecting the will of my fellow NFL owners. Today we achieved this goal with the compromise reached by NFL ownership,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a diplomatic statement. “The Chargers have been approved to relocate to Los Angeles, at the Inglewood location, at any time in the next year. In addition, the NFL has granted an additional $100MM in assistance in the event there is a potential solution that can be placed before voters in San Diego. I will be working over the next several weeks to explore the options that we have now created for ourselves to determine the best path forward for the Chargers.”

Here’s more on the Rams, Chargers, Raiders, and Los Angeles:

The Chargers have until the March 23rd – the conclusion of the NFL meetings – to decide whether they’re playing in the L.A. area or in San Diego for 2016, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
Mark Davis said that this decision is “not a win” for the Raiders, as Judy Battista of NFL.com tweets. “We’ll see where Raider nation ends up,” Davis said.
Davis made zero commitment to playing in Oakland in 2016, as Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com tweets. Of course, since L.A. is now not in the cards for the Raiders, it’s hard to see them playing anywhere else this fall. Beyond the 2016 season, however, it remains to be seen where the Raiders could wind up. He also said the extra $100MM that will be granted to his team by the NFL if he stays put “won’t bridge the gap” in Oakland (link).

Rams To Move To Los Angeles, Chargers Could Join

January 12th, 2016 at 8:20pm CST by Zachary Links

8:20pm: Giants co-owner Steve Tisch says it’s “unlikely” that the Chargers will play in L.A. in 2016, as Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post tweets.

7:50pm: The Rams are officially moving to Los Angeles and the Chargers will have the first crack at joining them through January 16th, 2017, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Following that, the Raiders will have preference, sources say.

If either the Rams or Chargers remain in their current cities, then they will receive $100MM to build stadiums (link). Meanwhile, USC has signed off on two NFL teams sharing the L.A. Coliseum starting as soon as 2016, Jason La Canfora of NFL.com tweets.

7:02pm: The Raiders have agreed to exit their “exclusive partnership” with the Chargers, setting up a potential pairing of the Rams and Chargers in Los Angeles, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports tweets.

If they leave San Diego, the Chargers could join the Rams immediately in Los Angeles for the 2016 season while playing at a temporary site. Alternatively, the Chargers could wait and play in San Diego until 2017 or later. Theoretically, the Chargers could treat their current home – Qualcomm Stadium – as their temporary site until the brand new facility is built in Inglewood. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will be the likely stopgap for the Rams until their new stadium is erected.

6:46pm: The Rams are heading back to Los Angeles, according to Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News (on Twitter). The only question now is whether the Chargers will join them now or join them later.

On Tuesday night in Houston, owners cast their votes on two proposals: one which would green light the Chargers/Raiders plan in Carson, Calif. and the other pairing the Rams and another team in Inglewood, Calif. That first round of votes did not yield the 24 votes needed for either proposal. Now, it appears that the Rams have gotten the green light to move to their planned stadium in Inglewood. The Chargers could still move to L.A., but they won’t be heading to their proposed site in Carson, it seems.

The Raiders will receive additional loan money earmarked for a future stadium in their home market when this becomes official, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (on Twitter) hears. Bonsignore (on Twitter) believes that the Raiders could now immediately turn their attention to San Diego given the strength of that market.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Minor NFL Transactions: 1/12/16

January 12th, 2016 at 7:48pm CST by Zachary Links

Today’s minor signings, cuts, and other moves:

The Jets signed wide receiver Chandler Worthy to a reserve/future deal, as Mark Berman of FOX 26 tweets. Worthy was previously on Houston’s taxi squad.
The Packers worked out former Nebraska linebacker Jason Ankrah on Tuesday, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
The Chargers have signed former CFL inside linebacker Dexter McCoil to a futures deal, Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun tweets.
The Broncos have signed tight end Manasseh Garner, punter Will Johnson, and tackle Darrion Weems to futures deals, James Palmer of NFL.com tweets.
Washington signed defensive linemen Corey Crawford and Kamal Johnson and linebacker Derrick Mathews to reserve/future contracts, as Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post writes.
The Panthers have signed guard David Yankey to a futures contract, as Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press tweets.
The Cardinals signed Quayshawn Nealy to the practice squad, Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun tweets.
The Patriots signed safety Cedric Thompson and wide receiver J.J. Worton to the practice squad and cut wide receiver DeAndre Carter, Wilson tweets.

Saints Interested In Dan Campbell

January 12th, 2016 at 6:44pm CST by Zachary Links

The Saints are among teams with interest in Dan Campbell, sources tell Ed Werder of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The Vikings, Cowboys, and Chargers were previously identified as teams with interest in the former Dolphins interim head coach.

After taking over the Dolphins midway through the season, Miami wound up being the only team to give Campbell a head coaching interview. When Adam Gase was hired as the team’s new head coach, Campbell decided to move on and pursue other opportunities.

In his first stint as an NFL head coach, Campbell had mixed results. After taking over for Joe Philbin when the Dolphins were 1-3, the interim head coach led the team to consecutive blowout wins to get back to .500. However, Miami won just three of its final 10 games, finishing with a 6-10 record for the season and a 5-7 mark under Campbell.

Campbell, a tight end himself over the course of his NFL playing career, served as the Dolphins’ tight ends coach prior to his promotion. It stands to reason that he could be in line for another tight ends coaching job somewhere, though that position is not available in New Orleans. Dan Roushar is the club’s tight ends coach, moving to that spot last season after the Saints fired Terry Malone.

Campbell and Saints head coach Sean Payton have some history together. Campbell, a former tight end, was drafted by the Giants in 1999, when Payton was coaching quarterbacks and later moved up to offensive coordinator. In 2003, Campbell signed with the Cowboys as a free agent and Payton was also there as an offensive assistant. The two were then together in Dallas for another three seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Owners Leaning Towards Rams/Chargers In Los Angeles

January 12th, 2016 at 6:29pm CST by Zachary Links

6:29pm: Rams players were told that they could receive word on Los Angeles tonight, Alex Marvez of FOX Sports tweets.

Meanwhile, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’ plane is slated to leave Houston tonight and Ben Volin of The Boston Globe (on Twitter) wonders if that’s a sign that the L.A. decision will come down this evening.

5:21pm: In Houston, owners have cast their votes on two proposals: one which would green light the Chargers/Raiders plan in Carson, Calif. and the other pairing the Rams and another team in Inglewood, Calif. The first vote has not yielded the 24 votes needed for either proposal, as Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times tweets.

The Rams/TBD pitch came rather close to winning with 20 votes from owners. Meanwhile, a dozen owners voted in favor of the joint Chargers/Raiders plan. Now, the plans will – again – be put to a vote, with the hope that one of the proposals reaches the necessary 75% (32 votes).

On Tuesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones got the necessary support for his Rams/team TBD proposal to be placed on the voting ballot. Meanwhile, a proposal that would only relocate the Rams to Inglewood was taken off the ballot. It appears that Jones has talked many of the league’s owners into a forced marriage between the Rams and Bolts. The Raiders, theoretically, could be that mystery team, but the Chargers have always been viewed as the stronger fit for L.A. than the Raiders. If the Inglewood plan wins out, the key parties involved will have to figure out how to bust up the paperwork binding the Raiders and Chargers together in a proposed L.A. move.

Browns Yet To Make Offer To Hue Jackson

January 12th, 2016 at 5:31pm CST by Zachary Links

The Browns have completed interview No. 2 with Hue Jackson and have yet to make a formal offer, according to Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer (on Twitter). The Bengals’ offensive coordinator still plans on going through with his scheduled interview with the Giants and that meeting will probably take place on Thursday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. In short, Jackson does not have a deal with the Browns just yet, despite reports indicating that Cleveland was high on him and poised to make a serious offer.

With Jackson’s Bengals out of the playoffs, the offensive coordinator is free to pursue head coaching opportunities and speak to any team. Now that Adam Gase has joined the Dolphins, Jackson has become perhaps the hottest name on the market. Cleveland is reportedly making a “big push” to land him and the Giants are also eyeing him as a candidate. The 49ers were strongly connected to the ex-Raiders head coach, but they’re apparently backing off somewhat.

It’s worth noting that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam isn’t at the NFL’s owners meetings in Houston, with his wife Dee in attendance instead. Haslam chose instead to remain in Ohio to be in attendance for Jackson’s interview.

Sandwiched around his one-year stint with the Raiders, an 8-8 season in 2011, Jackson’s been an OC for four teams — the Bengals, Raiders, Falcons and Washington — since 2003. Interestingly, Jackson’s only had one of those tenures extend beyond one season. That would be his current position in Cincinnati, where he’s served as the OC since 2014.

As PFR’s 2016 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker shows, the Browns have cast a wide net so far in their search. So far, the team has also interviewed Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, Jaguars offensive line coach Doug Marrone, Cowboys defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson, Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, and Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott. Adam Gase was also interviewed before he hooked on with the Dolphins.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Matt Schaub Plans To Continue Playing

January 12th, 2016 at 5:12pm CST by Zachary Links

Despite his struggles in 2015, quarterback Matt Schaub doesn’t plan on retiring this offseason, as Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com writes. The QB will be a free agent after his deal with the Ravens expires this spring.

“I still want to play,” Schaub said. “I’ve still got good years left in me. It’s just where I might be. We’ll see what happens moving forward.”

The 34-year-old is coming off of a season in which he finished as the No. 42 rated passer in the NFL, accumulating 540 yards through the air in two games with three touchdowns and four picks. After his poor play in a limited sample size, it’s hard to see Schaub drawing heavy interest from around the NFL. If he does land somewhere, odds are it won’t be in Baltimore. The Ravens will have a healthy Joe Flacco back in 2016 and Ryan Mallett is already under contract as his understudy.

While Schaub didn’t play up to his abilities in 2015, he did manage to collect on a $1MM bonus for playing in at least 10% of the team’s snaps this season (he participated in 132 of 1,083 snaps, good for 12%). The veteran started for the Ravens after Flacco suffered a season-ending knee injury in late November, but he was injured in his second start and never regained the job.

Schaub was benched by the Texans in 2013 and lost his starting gig to Raiders rookie Derek Carr in 2014. Prior to his lone year in Oakland, Schaub spent seven seasons in Houston, starting 88 total regular season contests for the team, recording a 90.9 overall passer rating, and earning a pair of Pro Bowl nods. However, he fell apart in the 2013 season, his last extended run as a starter, going 2-6 in his starts and throwing more interceptions (14) than touchdowns (10).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Los Angeles Relocation Talks

January 12th, 2016 at 4:20pm CST by Luke Adams

3:20pm: The Rams/Chargers proposal pushed by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is on the ballot for owners, Vincent Bonsignore of the L.A. Daily News tweets. However, the proposal that would put only the Rams in Inglewood is NOT on the ballot (link).

1:48pm: The league’s L.A. committee recommended Carson over Inglewood by a vote of 5-1, with Chiefs owner Clark Hunt representing the lone dissenter, tweets Jason Cole of Bleacher Report. According to Cole, Hunt believes that if the NFL relocates to L.A., only one team should move.

1:12pm: The NFL’s meetings in Houston got underway earlier today, with the league’s owners in town to try to work out a resolution for the Los Angeles relocation issue. While Browns owner Jimmy Haslam isn’t in attendance – his wife Dee is there in his place – the rest of the NFL’s owners are reportedly involved in today’s sit-down, including Seahawks owner Paul Allen, who rarely attends league meetings.

According to several reports, the morning session in Houston has concluded, with the Inglewood and Carson presentations having been made during that meeting. Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com tweets that Disney CEO Bob Iger was the frontman for the Carson presentation, though Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis also participated. That presentation went over very well with NFL owners, per Eric D. Williams of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Stan Kroenke of the Rams presented the Inglewood plan to his fellow owners.

Multiple reports have suggested that the six-owner Los Angeles committee will recommend the Carson plan over the Inglewood proposal, with Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Daily reporting that the committee has already made that recommendation. Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link) hears that recommendation hasn’t been formally made yet, but it does sound as if the committee is leaning toward Carson.

What does that mean? Well, it’s worth remembering that the day began with only two proposals officially on the table — Kroenke’s Inglewood stadium plan for the Rams, and the Chargers/Raiders proposal for a Carson stadium. Kaplan acknowledges that it’s unclear whether the L.A. committee is specifically recommending the Chargers/Raiders plan as is, or if the committee believes more generally that the NFL should move to Carson over Inglewood.

If a Rams/Chargers partnership, as proposed by Jones, is officially put on the table, it’s possible the committee modifies its recommendation. According to Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link), there are still multiple owners pushing hard for a Rams/Chargers union in Inglewood.

Although a Rams/Chargers team-up in Inglewood may be the preferred outcome for many NFL owners, it remains to be seen whether Spanos will get on board. A source tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that the Chargers could get enough votes to resist a “forced marriage” with the Rams in Inglewood. Given all the bridges Kroenke has burned in St. Louis, he may be in Los-Angeles-or-bust mode, which could give the Chargers some leverage to get the Rams to come aboard their Carson project instead, Florio suggests.

Cardinals’ Chris Johnson Returns To Practice

January 12th, 2016 at 3:53pm CST by Zachary Links

Cardinals running back Chris Johnson returned to practice on Tuesday, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Johnson remains on short-term IR.

His unfortunate late-season injury brought an end to one of, if not the, best comeback stories in the NFL this season. In 2015, the 30-year-old enjoyed a resurgence that few imagined could be possible over the offseason. In 11 games (9 starts) for the Cards, Johnson rushed for 814 yards and three scores off of 196 carries. Johnson will not be eligible to play until the Super Bowl and the Cardinals have some work to do before they get there.

Last season for the Jets, Johnson ran for just 663 yards, the first time in his career he recorded fewer than 1,000 yards in a season. However, he averaged a respectable 4.3 yards per carry for Gang Green in 2014 and the Cardinals saw potential in Johnson when no other team in the league did. The ground game was a weak spot in Arizona last season, as the team’s leading rusher, Andre Ellington, totaled just 660 yards, averaging 3.3 yards per carry, prompting the Cards to make the low-risk, potentially high-reward signing.

In October, the Cardinals went on record saying that they would look into an extension for CJ2K. Obviously, the Cards will now wait until their season is through to discuss their future with the veteran.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Coach Rumors: Koetter, Bucs, Babich

January 12th, 2016 at 3:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, the presumed favorite to replace Lovie Smith as Tampa Bay’s head coach, has finally had a formal interview with the team, tweets Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.

While Koetter’s name surfaced as a candidate for the job within minutes of the team parting ways with Smith, the Buccaneers interviewed two other candidates first — Cardinals offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin and Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott sat down with the Bucs during their respective teams’ bye weeks.

Let’s check in on a few more coaching-related stories from around the NFL….

The Chargers have hired former Jacksonville DC Bob Babich as their new linebackers coach, as Ricky Henne of Chargers.com writes. The job was previously held by Mike Nolan, who has moved on to other opportunities. Babich has 33 years of coaching experience, including his DC job in Jacksonville from 2013-2015.
Cowboys defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson, who interviewed with the Browns for their head coaching position, has elected to remain with the Cowboys, tweets Josina Anderson of ESPN.com. Henderson never seemed likely to land Cleveland’s HC job, but there were rumblings suggesting he would join Adam Gase‘s staff with the Dolphins.
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer announced today that he has not renewed Jeff Davidson‘s contract, meaning Minnesota will be in the market for a new offensive line coach (Twitter link via Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Per Alex Marvez of FOX Sports (Twitter link), Giants offensive line coach Pat Flaherty will interview for the Vikings’ position.

Zach Links contributed to this post.